Iranians in the United Kingdom explained

Group:British-Iranians
Persian: ایرانیان بریتانیا
Population: Iranian-born residents in the United Kingdom: 114,432
(2021/22 census)
: 106,801 (2021)[1]
: 4,803 (2022)[2]
: 2,367 (2021)
Northern Ireland: 461 (2021)[3]
Previous estimates:
42,494 (2001 census)
84,735 (2011 census)
70,000 (2017 ONS estimate)
Popplace:London, Manchester, Liverpool
Langs:British English, Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish and other languages of Iran. (see Languages of Iran)
Rels:Shia Islam, Non-religion, Christianity, Judaism, Baháʼí, Sunni Islam, Zoroastrianism, Other.

Iranians in the United Kingdom or British Iranians consist of people of Iranian nationality who have settled in the United Kingdom, as well as British residents and citizens of Iranian heritage. Iranians in the United Kingdom are referred to by hyphenated terms such as British-Iranians, British-Persians, Iranian-Britons, or Persian-Britons. At the time of the 2011 census, 84,735 Iranian-born people resided in the UK. In 2017, the Office for National Statistics estimated the Iranian-born population to be 70,000.

Terminology

British-Iranian is used interchangeably with British-Persian,[4] [5] [6] [7] partly due to the fact[8] that, in the Western world, Iran was known as "Persia". On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the endonym of the country used since the Sasanian Empire, in formal correspondence. Since then the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in the Western countries. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from "Persian" to "Iranian". In 1959, the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shah's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably.[9] However the issue is still debated today.[10] [11]

There is a tendency among British-Iranians to categorize themselves as "Persian" rather than "Iranian", mainly to dissociate themselves from the Islamic regime of Iran which has been in power since the 1979 revolution and the negativity associated with it, and also to distinguish themselves as being of Persian ethnicity, which comprise about 65% of Iran's population.[12] While the majority of British-Iranians come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azerbaijanis[13] [14] [15] and Kurds within the British-Iranian community,[16] leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. The Collins English Dictionary uses a variety of similar and overlapping definitions for the terms "Persian" and "Iranian".[17] [18]

History

The vast majority of Iranians in the UK arrived after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In the following five years, an estimated 8,000 Iranian asylum seekers arrived in the country. The 1981 census showed 28,617 persons born in Iran (18,132 men, 10,485 women). Iranians were not separately distinguished in the 1991 census. The 2001 census recorded 42,494 persons born in Iran. In the 2011 census, 79,985 Iranian-born people were recorded in England, 1,695 in Wales, 2,773 in Scotland and 282 in Northern Ireland. The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2017, 70,000 Iranian-born people were living in the UK. In 2004, the Iranian embassy in London estimated that as many as 75,000 Iranians might reside in the country. Most adults are themselves immigrants; the second generation are quite young, and so there are relatively few adults of Iranian background born and raised in the UK.

In the six-year period between 2018 and 2023, 21,565 Iranian nationals entered the United Kingdom by crossing the English Channel using small boats – the most common nationality of all small boat arrivals.[19] [20]

Religion

Iran is a primarily Shia Muslim country with Jewish, Baháʼí, Christian and Zoroastrian communities, a fact reflected in the migrant population in the UK.[21] However, there is an increasing number of Iranian Atheists and Agnostics. Some Iranians in the UK have converted from Shi'ism to various sects of Christianity. There are also active Jewish and Christian communities among British Iranians.[22]

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Country of birth (extended) . Office for National Statistics . 28 March 2023.
  2. Web site: Table UV204 - Country of birth: Country by Country of Birth by Individuals . National Records of Scotland. 24 May 2024. '2022' > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Country of birth: UV204'
  3. Web site: MS-A18: Country of birth - full detail. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 22 September 2022. 25 May 2023.
  4. Maryam. Daha. Contextual Factors Contributing to Ethnic Identity Development of Second-Generation Iranian American Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research. September 2011. 26. 5. 543–569. 10.1177/0743558411402335. 146592244. ... the majority of the participants self-identified themselves as Persian instead of Iranian, due to the stereotypes and negative portrayals of Iranians in the media and politics. Adolescents from Jewish and Baháʼí faiths asserted their religious identity more than their ethnic identity. The fact Iranians use Persian interchangeably is nothing to do with current Iranian government because the name Iran was used before this period as well. Linguistically modern Persian is a branch of Old Persian in the family of Indo-European languages and that includes all the minorities as well more inclusively..
  5. Book: Nakamura, Raymond M.. Health in America: A Multicultural Perspective. 2003. Kendall/Hunt Pub.. 978-0-7575-0637-6. 31. Iranian/Persian Americans – The flow of Iranian citizens into the United States began in 1979, during and after the Islamic Revolution..
  6. Book: Zanger, Mark. The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students. December 21, 2016. 2001. ABC-CLIO. 978-1-57356-345-1. 213.
  7. Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, Carl Leon Bankston,"Therefore, Turkish and Iranian (Persian) Americans, who are Muslims but not ethnically Arabs, are often mistakenly..", Salem Press, 2000
  8. Book: Darya, Fereshteh Haeri. Second-generation Iranian-Americans: The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Psychological Well-being. 21 December 2016. 2007. 978-0-542-97374-1. 3–4. According to previous studies, the presence of heterogeneity is evident among Iranian immigrants (also known as Persians – Iran was known as Persia until 1935) who came from myriads of religious (Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Armenian, Assyrian, Baháʼí and Zoroastrian), ethnic (Turk, Kurds, Baluchs, Lurs, Turkamans, Arabs, as well as tribes such as Ghasghaie, and Bakhtiari), linguistic/dialogic background (Persian, Azari, Gialki, Mazandarani, Kurdish, Arabic, and others). Cultural, religious and political, and various other differences among Iranians reflect their diverse social and interpersonal interactions. Some studies suggest that, despite the existence of subgroup within Iranian immigrants (e.g. various ethno-religious groups), their nationality as Iranians has been an important point of reference and identifiable source of their identification as a group across time and setting..
  9. Yarshater, Ehsan Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, Iranian Studies, vol. XXII no. 1 (1989)
  10. [Hooman Majd|Majd, Hooman]
  11. Book: Frye, Richard Nelson. Richard N. Frye. Greater Iran: A 20th-century Odyssey. Mazda. 2005. December 21, 2016. 9781568591773.
  12. Book: Bozorgmehr, Mehdi. Mary C. Waters. Reed Ueda. Helen B. Marrow. The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965. https://books.google.com/books?id=z-y_q4J_eCEC. 2009. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-04493-7. 469. Iran.
  13. Book: Svante E. Cornell. Azerbaijan Since Independence. 20 May 2015. Routledge. 978-1-317-47621-4. 7.
  14. Book: Barbara A. West. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. 1 January 2009. Infobase Publishing. 978-1-4381-1913-7. 68.
  15. Book: James Minahan. Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: S-Z. 1 January 2002. Greenwood Publishing Group. 978-0-313-32384-3. 1766.
  16. Elizabeth Chacko, Contemporary ethnic geographies in America // Ines M. Miyares, Christopher A. Airriess (eds.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pp. 325–326
  17. Web site: Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition . September 4, 2012 . Collinsdictionary.com .
  18. Web site: Definition of "Persian" . Collins English Dictionary . January 12, 2016.
  19. Web site: Official Statistics: Irregular migration to the UK, year ending December 2022 . gov.uk . Home Office . 23 February 2023.
  20. Web site: Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act: data tables to December 2023 . gov.uk . Home Office . 2 January 2024.
  21. [Religion in Iran]
  22. Web site: Persian community join the US. 18 March 2015.

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